About Guitar...
A brief introduction to the different kinds of guitar

The classical guitar is a fretted string instrument of Spanish origin.  Earlier instruments used to be strung with animal gut strings, however modern standard guitars have a set of six nylon strings, in which the lower three are usually wound with different kinds of metal.   The instrument is used to perform pieces from the traditional classical repertoire, but it has also been used in a variety of other styles such as Rock, Pop, Tango, Jazz, etc.

 

Quality instruments are made out of solid woods.  The most common woods used for the body are rosewood for the back and sides,ebony for the fingerboard and spruce or cedar for the top.  The top of the instrument is often considered the most important part; it is activated by the strings' vibrations and acts as an amplifier, producing most of the guitar's sound.  Instruments with a spruce top usually have a brighter sound, whereas cedar top instruments are usually sweeter and mellower.  This is not always the case, however, as different instruments can vary widely in sound, depending on the materials and methods employed in their construction.

 

Electric guitars have a much narrower fretboard and are strung with steel strings. They are usually played with a small plastic pick, and they are not well suited for polyphonic music.  The sound of the strings is amplified by microphones located in the body of the instrument.  Electric guitars are one of the most popular instruments in the world today and are used in many different genres.

 

 

Acoustic guitars are instruments that may appear similar to classical guitars at a first glance, but they share many characteristics from electric guitars, such as having narrower necks and fretboards and being strung with steel strings.  They produce a sharper, brighter sound than classical guitars and because of the smaller size of their fretboards it is too hard to perform traditional polyphonic pieces in them. They are very well suited for playing Folk, Rock and Pop music among other styles.

 

G.F.